The Government's "grandiose ideas" of reshaping the Armed Forces for the long-term future while slashing manpower and equipment has proved "ludicrous" given recent world events, a Westcountry military expert has warned.Steve Bush, who edits Liskeard-ba...
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A health minister has fired a warning shot by members of a controversial West Country NHS "pay cartel" reminding them that the Government's "priority" is nationally agreed arrangements.A letter from Dan Poulter, under-secretary of state at the Departme...
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A Cornish voluntary group working alongside an energy efficiency company has successfully secured over £126,000 of Government funding to help homes in South East Cornwall benefit from renewable heating technology.Polperro United Renewable Energy ...
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The Government's "outdated" emergency relief funding programme could leave Westcountry councils picking up the full bill for flood and storm damage, it has been warned.Ministers earlier this year activated the Bellwin scheme, an emergency pot of fundi...
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Workers’ union Unite has condemned the Government’s decision to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board.
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A leading south west renewable energy lawyer has welcomed the Government’s announcement of support for solar and biomass renewable energy projects.
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Proposals to make the Westcountry's poorest residents pay a share of council tax has been labelled "disgusting" by Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles.Councils across Devon and Cornwall have been considering proposals to effectively end the 100% co...
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Proposals to make the Westcountry's poorest residents pay a share of council tax has been labelled "disgusting" by Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles.Councils across Devon and Cornwall have been considering proposals to effectively end the 100% co...
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Energy efficiency specialist Enact Energy has helped a local voluntary group secure £126k of Government funding to help homes in south east Cornwall benefit from renewable heating technology.
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The Government has angered conservationists by scaling back the number of aquatic reserves off the Westcountry coast.Some 31 marine conservation zones – covering an area around three times the size of Cornwall – will be given increased prot...
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Cleaning up the havoc brought by last month's floods in Cornwall could hit the £3 million mark, according to council chiefs.Such was the deluge of water sparked by heavy rain that roads, bridges and footpaths were severely damaged.Cornwall Counci...
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FEARS have been raised that poor and vulnerable households in Cornwall will be placed under severe financial pressure after Cornwall Council's Cabinet agreed that every household should pay at least 25% of their council tax bills.The new charges are se...
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Ministers have rejected calls for the Government to abandon its planned cull of badgers to tackle TB in cattle.Environment, Food and Rural Affairs minister Lord de Mauley yesterday confirmed the culling policy would be piloted initially in two areas ne...
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Tourism bosses have urged Chancellor George Osborne to give serious consideration to a VAT cut which, according to tests conducted using the Government's own financial forecasting system, could net the Westcountry an extra £160 million a y...
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A deadly tree fungus has been detected in Cornwall for the first time as the number of infected sites nationwide doubled in the past month to almost 300.The confirmed case of ash dieback was found in a recently-planted site near Camborne, the Forestr...
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Business Secretary Vince Cable has moved to ease any fears the far South West will miss out on money handed to the regions to boost jobs.Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement announced the creation of a single funding pot for housing, skills, tr...
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Traditional cider could be exempt from a Government crackdown on cheap alcohol if it hits jobs in rural areas, a minister has suggested.
Farmers in the cider heartlands of Devon and Somerset have warned they will go out of business if a proposed m...
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The death knell has been sounded for Government plans to end uniform national pay scales in the public sector, which critics claim would lead to pay cuts across the Westcountry.Chancellor George Osborne yesterday announced in his autumn financial state...
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London EditorChancellor George Osborne has announced the Government will fund a long-awaited upgrade of a stretch of the A30 through Cornwall to relieve a notorious bottleneck.Cash for the £30 million scheme to make a single lane between Temple a...
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Westcountry firefighters' leaders have urged the Government to "wake up to the consequences of cuts" to the service in the wake of the recent floods.Crews in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset worked long shifts to battle the onslaught of swollen rivers, bri...
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The Government today confirmed that it will be providing the funding to upgrade the A30 between Temple and Higher Carblake to dual carriageway.
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